So on Thursday the 14th, Lisa and I took the train into Munich to visit the Deutsches Museum. Surprisingly, the train was completely packed, which is something that Lisa says never happens. We didn't have seats on the almost hour ride into the city, but that was okay because I got to stand by the window and watch the beautiful countryside roll by.
Almost as soon as we arrived in München, it started raining, which wasn't great. Luckily, Lisa had remembered to pack umbrellas and it was okay. We stopped at the Marienplatz first then the Karlsplatz, both of which were incredibly impressive.
By this point, I was juggling my phone like a typical tourist and taking lots of pictures while feeling my shoes slowly getting wetter and wetter. Lisa's phone began acting up when we tried to use it to navigate to the museum, but there were a couple vague and poorly placed street signs pointing the way :-P When we did finally get there, the line for tickets was incredibly long, but moved way faster than expected. Nonetheless, it still took about 40 minutes standing the in rain before we even got tickets. We were now an hour behind schedule and had lots to see in the museum.
The majority of the main exhibits were bilingual (German and English), so although I'm really here to practice my German, wading through complicated technical vocabulary isn't really my thing. What was funny was that there would be so much auf Englisch and then suddenly *nope* no more. Whole sections were only in German, and it was okay because I could puzzle it out, ask Lisa, or just enjoy looking at the exhibits, but it amused me to no end that the mere facade of helpful bilingualism pervaded the entire place.
Like, 25% of the cafeteria area had bilingual signage in the weirdest places. For example, there would be a bilingual sign instructing everybody to take a tray or standing above the various parts of a meal (obvious things like Cake, Drinks, etc.), but then 10 feet further down the line there would be an even longer sign detailing the different entree options, only in German. I was even kind of confused because it was more complicated food vocabulary (breaded, fried, with specific kinds of spices or sauces, names of other German specialties), stuff that if I didn't know, foreigners who didn't speak any German at all would have been hopelessly lost. Weird and really funny.
Despite all that nonsense, I do speak enough German to be perfectly fine, and the museum was really enjoyable. So many interesting exhibits, lots of different topics, and Lisa and I even got a short private tour through the closed DNA lab and about some of the other Bio/Nanotechnology exhibits by a really nice guy who was very excited to help the foreigner :-)
On Friday the 15th, Lisa, Susi and I made Schnitzel, Pommes Frites, und Rettichsalat (Schnitzel, French fries, and radish salad) for Mittagessen (lunch), which is the main meal of the day here. It's funny, I've been getting up late every day (like, 10:30 or so) and eating a regular sized bowl of cereal, then about an hour later, eating another full meal, meaning I definitely never go hungry here with so much awesome food!
Abendbrot (Dinner, lit. Evening bread) is usually just that: bread with cheese, spreads like pig fat and bacon bits (not actually my favorite, believe it or not!) or Leberwurst (meat spread), fruit, and mozzarella/tomato salad. Nowhere near as big as a traditional American dinner, but just as satisfying and actually supposedly better for the metabolism to eat meals in this fashion.
I was supposed to try to make my favorite dish (Swiss Chicken Casserole) for lunch as a a thank you, but I quickly realized something shocking: there are NO condensed Campbell's soups or pre-packaged stuffing mixes in Germany. None. My host family had heard of stuffing but never had it, let alone had a mix for it. And the soup was also something they'd never seen before. I've never felt more "American" than telling my host family that something so incredibly foreign to them is as common to me as their Bavarian bread.
So I tried my darnedest to improvise: the soup I could reasonably make from scratch. I found a couple recipes on the internet, even started figuring out the names of ingredients in German and translating the measurements into metric. I thought that the soup would be the hardest part, especially considering that everything else is pretty basic (cheese and chicken), but the stuffing made it impossible. Theoretically, I could toast white bread (already not so easy to find given that most bread here is dark and regular sized bread slices are something I haven't seen yet, only rolls), then set it under the broiler with the herbs in stuffing (I had to look those up as well) for a couple minutes, but even then it still wouldn't taste like chicken or be really much like dry stuffing mix at all. I had to admit defeat.
It really opened my eyes to what had heretofore been only a couple minor culinary differences. The food here is really tasty and definitely different than in America, but not so drastically different so as to be unrecognizable or unbelievably outlandish. Yesterday, I learned that there are no condensed soups in Germany. Or pre-prepared chicken, beef, or other stocks. Or dried stuffing mix. Or Pop Tarts, Aunt Jemima-like pancake mixes, or microwave popcorn with butter and salt. They seem like simple and inconsequential discoveries, but ones that definitely reinforce the difference in culture.
Fun fact: My host family does not have a microwave, and a lot of people around here don't have one either. The Germans think that microwave radiation isn't healthy and therefore, they favor making things hot and fresh for the only time of day that a hot meal is served: lunch. When something needs to be reheated, it's either the oven or heating it up in a saucepan on the stove. Surprisingly, I don't have any problem with this! I only noticed on like, the third or fourth day that I hadn't used a microwave at all :-)
After lunch, Lisa and I went bike riding into Mindelheim so that I could get some really good photos (not in the rain!).
When we got home, we finished planning for our trip into Munich tomorrow with eight other of Lisa's friends for the Color Festival, and continued discussing with Sophie and Paulina (Lisa's friend and her exchange student, for those that need a reminder) our plans for Berlin. At the moment, we're having a bit of an issue keeping track of and catering to everybody's priorities, so what we're actually going to see is completely up in the air. I don't think I'm going to blog from Berlin (7/17-7/21) but I'm still deciding whether or not to bring my laptop. Gah.
We went to a medieval festival in the nearby town of Kaufbeuren. There was so many people it was a little scary, but visiting another beautiful Bavarian town, seeing all the costumes, hearing the drums and trumpets, and trying Baumkuchen (think about how they prepare gyro meat on a spit, but with cake batter that's more like dough) was a lot of fun.
Another fun fact: My host family (especially my host dad, Thomas) is big into medieval festivals. Thomas plays the drums, and when I first heard that, I assumed he played for a community band or belongs to a rock group. No. Instead, he plays at medieval festivals in full costume with a group of about 14 other drummers that belong to a larger medieval group of around 1400 people. When we were at the medieval festival tonight, we walked right up to the tent from the group from Mindelheim and they knew everybody there. One woman was even Thomas' niece and Lisa's cousin!
Lisa's uncle, cousins, and a bunch other family members are all involved in some way or another, and even show up alongside Thomas in a really beautiful book from Mindelheim's most recent Frundsburgfest (the name of their medieval festival). They have a collection of medieval costumes for every member of the family, all self-made! How cool!
I'll probably try to post again today after the Color Festival, but it might be hard considering the time crunch between coming home from Munich, washing out the color powder, and packing for Berlin...we'll see.
I'll leave you with some pretty pictures of the sunset in Bayern (Bavaria, the state where I'm living). It was an absolutely beautiful night. The fog rising off the innumerable fields, lush rolling hills, tiny villages all set against the backdrop of a rainbow, gently darkening sky...these pictures do NOTHING to do it justice.
Beste Grüßen (Best Wishes)
Deine Megan
No comments:
Post a Comment